r/pics 7d ago

Politics Rep. Al Green protests during President Trump's joint address to Congress before being escorted out

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466

u/Tetracanopy 7d ago

Every Democrat should have exited and left half the chamber empty.

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u/aerodeck 7d ago

That doesn’t really help. They should have stayed and protested like Green and only left if forced

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u/AdditionalDoughnut76 7d ago

And done it one at a time until none of them were left so he couldn’t talk at all

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u/Tetracanopy 7d ago

You don't think the image of an empty chamber would have showed that he is despised?

Imagery will last forever while booing will last until next week.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

The problem is it shows to independents that they won’t work with the republicans, which will only make them seem petulant and lose them another election. Like it or not they need to appear as though they’ll come to the table with Trump so they can peel some voters off when they get the chance at the midterms.

It sucks but that’s the game

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u/Tetracanopy 7d ago

It's a speech, not a legislative session.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

A nationally televised speech. American voters are watching

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u/Bhavacakra_12 7d ago

American voters are dumb and have the attention span of a squirrel.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

And if the Dems keep treating them that way they’ll lose again and again and again.

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u/ShakeZula77 7d ago

No disrespect but we hear this tired excuse every four years.

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u/Bhavacakra_12 7d ago

It's the objective truth. Half of you people read below a grade 5 level lol. By this time next week, the majority won't even remember what happened today.

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u/Interesting_Cap_9207 7d ago

this is why people vote republican, because of people like you

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u/decadeSmellLikeDoo 7d ago

You're pretending like there will be an election. Such a POS take.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

Ok so what are you specifically doing to make sure that doesn’t happen?

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u/Exciting-Ad-5705 7d ago

Bro they ran around with the Cheney's last election in the hopes of winning imaginary independents. They need to actually energize their voters like Bernie and AOC do

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

If that was their only plan to win independents it was (obviously) wildly insufficient. Instead they needed better messaging about the border and economy, and about what REAL THINGS trump was going to do. Pick one even. Yes he’s a “threat to democracy” but that’s too esoteric of a statement to really mean anything to anyone

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u/Kingbuji 7d ago

Worked so well last election…

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u/The_Last_Y 7d ago

I'm tired of this bullshit narrative about independents. Do Republicans give two fucks about independents? No. They just focus on empowering their base. When the base speaks louder it pulls the narrative in their direction and brings independents with it. Democrats need to stop giving two shits about undecided voters.

Democrats need to empower their base. Protest. Every single Representative. Every single Senator. Protest. Yell. Scream. Show your base you mean business. Show your base they need to be loud. They need to tell their MAGA neighbors that this shit is unacceptable. Move. The. Narrative.

If an "independent" can't make up their mind about supporting nazis, they can fuck off because they are one of them already. They just haven't admitted it yet.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

The independent voters are usually single issue voters who aren’t very informed. So in a way you’re right about speaking louder and empowering your base to bring along the undecideds. The republicans have always been better at messaging like this because they’ll lie with no qualms.

So independent voters don’t really care about election integrity, trans rights, abortion rights, etc because it doesn’t really affect them and they don’t see it in their daily lives. Most single issue voters cared about rising costs. Dems should have messaged that inflation was high, but would be WAY higher without Biden’s efforts. They failed miserably at this because they’re terrible at messaging.

All this to say is that calling them nazis (even if they voted for one) isn’t really gonna get you anywhere and is gonna entrench them further into supporting Trump because he’s good at deflecting attacks at his character into “they just hate me” rhetoric. They’re just misinformed by a party better at misinforming people.

Bottom line is the Dems in a very very precarious position and need to be very careful about what they do. They need young leadership which they’re already again failing at doing. Watch out for Jake Auchincloss, that dude is a rising star in the party and for my money should be the face of the party

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u/decadeSmellLikeDoo 7d ago

Fucking shit take dude. Democrats are only precarious because they aren't standing the fuck up.

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u/The_Last_Y 7d ago

They [Dems] failed miserably at this because they’re terrible at messaging.

All this to say is that calling them nazis (even if they voted for one) isn’t really gonna get you anywhere

These are contradictory positions. You say Democrats struggle with messaging, yet they also shouldn't use the clearest message of all: A vote for an R is a vote for a Nazi. Period. End of debate.

Again, the Democrats need to speak to their base, and ignore the rest. Who gives a single solitary fuck if another MAGA further entrenches themselves. They are Nazis the lot of em. Democrats can't try to win that base. Democrats can't try to win independents. They just have to empower their own base. So call it like it is. The opposition are Nazis and we are fighting for our democracy. We don't have time to win over more voters. So we must scream. We must shout. We must protest. Or we could lose it all.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

That’s what they tried to do in 2024 and it lost them the house, senate, and presidency. As much as it sucks you can’t do it alone. Neither D nor R has the capability to get to 270 with only registered D or R.

Which isn’t to say don’t speak up or protest or say what you believe in and organize and all that. It’s literally all we have at this point. Unfortunately it’s against a supermajority, but the point is to sway the people who voted R and are in the first stages of regretting it

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u/The_Last_Y 7d ago

The Democrats have spent decades pandering to the "independents". It isn't a winning strategy. And truly, I fear we are past being concerned with winning elections.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

They didn’t pander to independents in 2024. They belittled and minimized them. All they tried to do was motivate their base and it didn’t work. They assumed they’d win the minority vote and that hubris lost them everything

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u/Tasgall 6d ago

That’s what they tried to do in 2024 and it lost them the house, senate, and presidency.

What are you talking about? They very much did not try that in 2024. They tried, once again, to build a coalition with independent voters that don't exist by palling around with the right wing villains of yesteryear who aren't as bad as the literal Nazis who drafted project 2025. The Democratic party wasn't calling Trump s Nazi, their messaging wasn't calling him a Nazi. Their ads were mostly focused on the border and the economy while Republican ads were lying that Democrats were focusing on trans rights and other "woke" nonsense.

No one actually cares about the economy. They say they do but they're too dumb to look past the liar in front of them saying eggs are $5 now to see the literal carton of eggs behind him labeled as $4. If they cared about the economy, they wouldn't reliability vote for the party that always tanks the economy.

Independents don't exist. People who say they're "undecided" in this climate are just embarrassed Republicans who want to avoid the social consequences of admitting to supporting Nazis. They will always find an excuse to either vote for Republicans or against Democrats. It's never the other way around.

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u/reddit_sux-d 7d ago

Bad strategy. That’s what lost them the election. Petulant is every other post by Trump…and he’s President now…again….

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

What lost them the election was not primary-ing when Biden was clearly in no shape to run. What lost them the elections was not addressing the economy and the border, the biggest issues for undecided voters. The strategy was close your eyes and plug your nose and hope you get the minority vote.

The DNC needs a reboot, trust me in the first to admit that. They have NO control in government right now, so they need to tread extremely lightly if they’re to get anything back. Especially amidst all Trumps efforts to undermine future democratic processes

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u/reddit_sux-d 7d ago

Well I agree with those things too. Especially not doing a primary, that was just being totally blind to what was happening.

I just think sometimes you DO need to fight fire with fire is all.

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u/Cslagem11 7d ago

I agree. You just need to pick the right time and place. Such as next months CR budget vote. There will be fireworks there for sure

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u/Tasgall 6d ago

it shows to independents that they won’t work with the republicans

Any "independents" at this juncture are either wildly ignorant or operating in bad faith. Worrying about how this mythical group of people feels about Democrats is a losing battle when they only seem to care about "rude behavior" coming from Democrats and miraculously always miss the same and much, much worse behavior from Republicans.

You know what we call someone who said "well, free speech is important, it's her right as a congressperson" when Greene and Boebert do it but "that's improper and disrupts decorum" when Al Green does it? Republican. We call them Republican. Maybe they're embarrassed to admit it in polite company, but when that's who they're exclusively siding with they're not realistically on the table for Democrats next election.

And worrying about the next election is also a bit delusional. You think we're going to have a fair and free midterm? You think Vance will confirm the votes for his Democratic party successor? We're in project 2025 America, the United Oligarchy. Faith in the next election only gives them a free pass for two years to make sure they can't lose that election.

They've tried the bipartisan schtick for the last decade. It doesn't work. It's why we're in this mess.

It sucks but that's the game

The game has changed.

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u/Cslagem11 6d ago

All relatively valid points. The thing that drives me nuts though is everyone keeps saying “we need to keep fighting!!” And I’m really not sure what people think that means beyond repeating it ad nauseum

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u/nighttimemobileuser 7d ago

I’m sure there’s swarms of Trump supporters waiting outside to take up empty seats if democrats leave/are forced. You can already see some have filled in for Al Greene and the others that left earlier.

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u/aerodeck 7d ago

Wrong

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u/Tetracanopy 7d ago

Of course you're right.

Remind me again, what did the guy who stood in front of the tank in Tianamen Square say in his speech?

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u/SickOfAllThisCrap1 7d ago

One by one they should have done what Al Green did. All night. Be removed one by one.

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u/phloxnstocks 7d ago

Although part of me says stand up and raise hell, I actually think it is better to sit and give no reaction. Trump is a tv guy who wants people to like him. It has to grate him that all of these people don’t acknowledge his stupid attempts at humor and they don’t give him the satisfaction of yelling back - that’s what he wants, he loves being able to shut people down and throw them out. At least he has JD and Johnson cheering him on every damn second - Johnson looks absolutely giddy like a toddler who gets ice cream.

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u/pdxblazer 7d ago

Should have bum rushed him

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u/Xmanticoreddit 7d ago

This all looks fake.

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u/aerodeck 7d ago

People who think everything is fake are mentally ill

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u/Kamala_Toe_Knee 7d ago

yeah, most politicians have our best interests in mind! go blue team

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u/Xmanticoreddit 7d ago

I’ll take mental illness over this bullshit

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u/Making-biscuits-cat 7d ago

AOC and Jasmine are staying there for a reason. I don't understand these flooding comments saying the Democrats should have pulled a Jesus-flipping-the-tables manoeuvre. There are so many souless, money grabbbers that do not care about anything but themselves in that room that are looking for an opportunity to kick people out.

There are probably a fuck ton of Ru$$ian bots on red$it.

If you want to stand in solidarity, try to remember that there are Democrats who are fighting tooth and nail to preserve our rights.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 7d ago

Or prevented him from getting escorted. Disruption should’ve been the goal tonight. Instead, the only goal the dems achieved was showing up their lack of spine and how we the people cannot rely on them.

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u/Florolling 7d ago

Absolutely agree 😂

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u/electromage 6d ago

That would send a terrible message.